The Business of Going Viral Meeting Recap

by Riley Mason

Stephanie Mitchell is a senior brand social media marketer at Zoom. Before landing her job at Zoom, she graduated from Grady in 2018 with a public relations degree and a public affairs certificate. Mitchell was also part of PRSSA and served as the social media director.

Stephanie Mitchell (middle) surrounded by PRSSA exec

After graduating, she worked at Lockheed Martin, where she moved around the company for two years to gain exposure to different parts of the communications teams. One of her roles during this time was live-tweeting rocket launches, which she described as terrifying but fun. She later worked at Amazon before joining Zoom. Mitchell said she loves her job at Zoom and that it has been her favorite experience yet.

Outside of work, Mitchell loves to read and spend time with her husband, dog and two cats.

How was the transition from college to your early career?

Mitchell was honest about the difficulties of the transition, describing it as tough. She said moving from a college campus to New Jersey and jumping into working for an aerospace engineering company was challenging. However, PRSSA and Grady set her up for success because she was able to gain varied experiences.

One thing Mitchell emphasized is that practicing how to pivot can make the transition easier. She initially thought she wanted to be a travel influencer and even interned for one in college, but her ideas for the future changed, and getting comfortable with that was important.

How did you decide to get your MBA?

While at Lockheed Martin, Mitchell had the opportunity to return to school and obtain her Master of Business Administration. Once the two-year program she was part of ended and she accepted a full-time position, Lockheed offered to pay for her tuition. Mitchell said the decision was a no-brainer, especially with her tuition covered. However, that didn’t make the process easy.

Mitchell said that going from a full-time job to master’s classes at night was challenging, but in the end, completely worth it.

How do PR and business relate?

Mitchell explained that brand marketing and PR are two sides of the same coin and that, in some company structures, they report to the same higher-up. Brand marketing and PR both serve the top funnel of awareness for consumers, but they do so in different ways.

As a brand marketer, Mitchell described her role as more visual. She emphasized that brand marketing encompasses brand identity and overarching brand-level marketing. Specifically, she explained that social media serves both purposes.

How do you uncover relatable experiences and connect with users?

Mitchell said that it’s a combination of many factors. First, she is chronically online, meaning she always has her finger on the pulse of pop culture trends. Second, Zoom uses a platform for social listening. Each morning, she spends the first hour of her day scrolling through social listening feeds and analyzing what consumers and users are talking about. Data monitoring and social listening help Mitchell and the social media team figure out what consumers want to hear about.

Additionally, the Zoom product team and other internal teams may have content they want to push, which drives Mitchell’s content creation. There is pressure internally and externally.

How does the social team function, and how is it structured at Zoom?

Most big companies have a social team, and some may even have a social media team for each line of business. At Zoom, it is just Mitchell and one other employee. She said they do everything, including graphic design and video editing—skills she emphasized are underrated in this career.

Another surprise to many Grady students may be that Mitchell uses Canva and Figma for most of her graphic design, rather than Adobe.

Overall, Mitchell believes social media is much more than people think. It is a role where she gets to stay on top of trends and constantly search for the next big thing that will give Zoom more awareness.